


Bathtub

by missdibley



Series: The Red Nose Diaries [85]
Category: British Actor RPF, Tom Hiddleston - Fandom
Genre: AU, Existing Relationship, F/M, Fluff, look at future, the red nose diaries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-29 20:01:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14480127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missdibley/pseuds/missdibley
Summary: A rainy afternoon, a girl, and her dog.





	Bathtub

**Author's Note:**

> I thought some folks might need some fluff after IW.

“Biwwy thick.”

Carmen looked up from where she sat in the nursery, right by her son Billy’s bed. She smiled reassuringly at her daughter, Iris, who stood in the hallway clutching a stuffed pink elephant.

“Yes, baby,” Carmen whispered. She held her index finger up to her lips. “Sssh.”

Iris poked her head in, straining to see her beloved brother as he slept. “Night night, Biwwy,” she whispered.

Carmen had pulled the curtains shut to make it dark, though she did switch on his snow globe nightlight before she joined Iris in the hallway. She helped Iris with the door, leaving it ajar so they could hear when Billy woke up.

It was Saturday, and a rainy, blustery one at that. Iris snuggled in her mother’s arms as Carmen carried her downstairs, their old dog Bobby padding just behind. A quick nuzzle, and the gentle press of the back of her hand to Iris’s forehead, confirmed that the little girl did not have a temperature. Once downstairs, Iris wriggled out of her mother’s arms to race to the kitchen where her own child sized play kitchen waited.

“Hello, loves.” Tom joined them, cleaning his glasses with the hem of his sweatshirt. “How’s the patient?”

“Biwwy’s thick,” Iris repeated, handing Tom a wooden wedge painted to look like a piece of cheddar. “Biwwy’s theeping now.”

“Thank you, pudding.” Tom pretended to snack on the toy before offering it to Carmen. “Want some cheese?”

Carmen shook her head. “Can you watch her? I have to run to the store.”

“But it’s so awful outside.” Tom frowned. “Can’t it wait?”

“Nope,” Carmen said. “And getting it delivered would take too long in this weather, anyway.”

“Fine,” said Tom. He closed his eyes briefly when Carmen kissed him on the cheek. “See you soon.”

“Bye, Tom.” Carmen knelt on the floor beside Iris, kissing her daughter’s cheek. “I’m going to the store.”

“Wanna go!” Iris dropped her elephant, and the rubber eggplant she had been trying to feed to it.

“You stay here with Daddy,” Carmen said.

“Ousside,” Iris insisted. “Puddle pease.”

“Oh,” Carmen said, realizing. “You want to play in the puddles?”

“Uh huh, Mama.” Iris smiled, revealing the dimple in her left cheek.

“Maybe later. When the sun comes out, okay?”

Iris’s brow furrowed, and she turned to look out the window. “Where sun.”

Tom picked her up, and brought Iris closer to the window. “It’s coming. Okay?”

Thus mollified, Iris peered at her father’s face. “Pawmise?”

“Yes,” Tom said. He looked over Iris’s shoulder at Carmen, who was watching them with a fond smile on her face.. “Say bye to Mama.”

“Bye!” Iris waved her arm wildly, narrowly knocking Tom’s glasses off his face.

“Back in a second.” Carmen kissed them both again. “Be good!”

“Was that for me or for Iris?” Tom called after Carmen as she turned to go.

“Guess!” Carmen smirked back at him.

The sky brightened not long after Carmen left, but the rain and the wind did not abate, so Tom kept Iris inside. He sat at the kitchen table, making notes in a script while she composed play meals for her father and the dog at her toy kitchen. Every plate was deposited on the table, Iris blinking and urging Tom: “Eat, pease.” He would oblige her of course, humming his approval as she told him what it was that he was eating.

He had been back at this script when Iris retrieved her raincoat and little rain boots, struggling to put them on herself. With one boot on, and the coat hanging off her curly head by its hood, she clomped back into the kitchen to plead her case.

“Ousside?” She asked.

Tom turned to look out the window. The rain still fell, but it was gentler now. Even so, the sun had not yet come out. He shook his head.

“Not yet, Pudding Cup,” Tom said, sighing. “No sun.”

Iris sighed. “No sun,” she repeated in a forlorn sing-song voice. “No sun.”

She returned to her kitchen, still with the coat and the one boot on, and set about pretending to do dishes. Bobby curled up beside her. Tom resumed his script, and listened to the soothing sounds of the rain on the window, the dog huffing, and Iris humming to herself.

Tom stretched and, as he got up, he decided to check on Billy upstairs. Dropping a kiss to the top of Iris’s head, he murmured “Be good. Daddy will be back in a moment,” then dashed upstairs. He found Billy fast asleep, snoring and snuffling. Tom didn’t want to disturb his son’s sleep but he did kiss his Billy’s cheek, and pulled the his blanket up around his shoulders before returning downstairs.

At the bottom of the stairs, there seemed to be a slight cool breeze, and for a moment Tom felt refreshed. But as he approached the kitchen, the air grew cooler and once he was in the kitchen, it was cold. The room was empty, and the door to the garden was wide open.

_“Shit,”_ Tom muttered, and stepped outside to find Bobby running around in the muddy grass. In his mouth he carried a small rubber boot. Chasing after him was Iris, raincoat flying behind her and the boot’s twin stuck firmly on her right leg. The dog zigged, then zagged, only getting mud and dirt on his paws as he scrambled about. Spotting his master, Bobby raced towards Tom, only to dash through his legs.

Hot on his heels, Iris was not so quick. The look of sheer delight on her face was replaced with shock, her mouth perfectly round when she saw Tom. She began to yell “Daaaaaaaaaaa...” and then she tripped, over an unseen branch or having slipped on a muddy leaf, and fell, flat on her tummy, in the wet grass.

Tom immediately fell to his knees, firmly grabbing Iris just under her arms so he could lift her up and examine her closely. Her bottom lip trembled, and her eyes were wide with shock as they blinked up at him.

“I falled, Daddy,” said Iris.

Tom peered at her face, noting with great relief that she did not appear to be injured. “Are you okay? Do you hurt?”

“No.” Iris shook her head, then looked down herself. She was covered with mud, mud that she was now getting all over Tom as he cuddled her. “Mud.”

“Yes, love, that’s a great deal of mud. What say we get out of this…” Tom looked up, only noticing then that the rain was clearing. Out of the corner of his eye, just peeking from behind a cloud, he saw the faint hopeful shimmer of the sun.

“Sun, Daddy,” Iris pointed out. “Dere sun! Icy ousside.”

Yes, there was the sun, and so Iris had to go outside. Kneeling in the mud, holding his child in his arms, Tom happily conceded.

“Tom?”

“Mama!” Iris chirped, wiggling out of Tom’s embrace so she could welcome her mother home. She flung herself at Carmen’s feet, where Bobby was already jumping and so getting dirt all over the bottom of her jeans.

Tom put Iris in the bath, smiling she told recounted her brief adventure in the muddy wonderland of the garden. It was only after he’d dried her off and combed her hair, put her in a pull-up and pyjamas before settling her down for a nap, that it occurred to him that he should bathe as well.

In their bathroom, he found Carmen waiting for him. She looked askance at his t-shirt and boxers.

“Clothes are in the hamper,” he explained. “I got a taste of the mud myself.”

“Yes, I remember,” she said. “Strip.”

Tom grinned as he tugged off his shirt. “Excellent. How long do we have before they wake up, do you reckon?”

“Dork,” Carmen replied with a laugh. She pointed to the tub, which Tom now realized was full of hot water.

“Can’t we shag first, bathe later?” Tom approached his wife, who placed her hands on his hips and toyed with the waist of his boxers.

“Maybe,” she said, looking up at him through her lashes. “Though I should probably say no to you.”

“Whatever for?” Tom asked innocently. He was startled a little when Carmen stood up and pushed him gently.

“You were naughty, Thomas,” Carmen said, nuzzling his bare chest. She backed him up against the edge of the tub. “You said you’d keep an eye on her.”

“And I did!” Tom protested. “But I had to check Billy…”

“Baby,” she interrupted him with a look. “That’s why the baby monitor was in the kitchen.”

“The baby monitor?” Tom asked, weakly.

“Yes, sir,” Carmen said. “You didn’t see it? On the counter?”

“Erm…”

Carmen sighed. “Never mind. I knew as long as Iris had Bobby looking after her…”

“Hey!” Tom laughed, pulling her into his arms so he could kiss her.

“You’re all sweaty,” Carmen muttered, kissing his chest. “All that humidity…”

“I guess that means it’s time for your bath as well,” Tom mused.

“Yeah?” Carmen reached for him, slipping her hand into his boxers. She smiled to herself when she found his cock and took him in hand. “How long do you think we have?”

Before Tom could reply that, frankly, he didn’t need much time at all, the sound of a plaintive cough came from the baby monitor, which Carmen had brought up from the kitchen after toweling Bobby off. And then a little boy’s voice croaking “Mama?”

“Dammit,” Tom whispered.

“He sounds better,” Carmen said, sweetly. “Doesn’t he sound better?”

“He does,” Tom admitted. “I’ll get him.”

“I’ll get him,” Carmen insisted. “Get in the bath.”

“And what about…?” Tom waggled his eyebrows. “This?”

_“This?”_ Carmen bit her lip. “But you were so naughty, Tom.”

“And I can be naughtier still, Button,” he said.

“Promise?” Carmen asked.

He took a lock of her hair, still damp from having been outside, and tugged it gently. “Promise.”


End file.
